Cannes: uMedia Takes Paul Andrew Williams' 'Close Enough'

COLOGNE, Germany - uConnect, the sales division of Belgium-based group uMedia, has picked up international sales rights to Paul Andrew Williams' period biopic Close Enough.

The Avengers star Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell (Captain America) are attached to star as the true-life couple that founded Magnum, the world's first photo agency.

Hiddleston would play renowned war photographer Robert Capa, Atwell the acclaimed photojournalist Gerda Taro. Born Andrei Friedman and Gerda Pohorylles, Capa and Taro reinvented themselves after fleeing the Nazi to Paris in 1934, where they built a life together. It was there, after the war, that the two would create the Magnum photo agency in 1947.

Hiddleston will be seen next in Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive, which was a late edition to the Cannes Competition line up, following up with Thor: The Dark World where he will reprise his role as the villain god Loki. Atwell is currently in production on Captain America: The Winter Soldier, set for release in April 2014.

Williams, whose last feature was the drama Song for Marion, will direct from a script by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Menno Meyjes (The Color Purple).

Dutch production company Camera Entertainment will produce Close Enough together with Spain's Kanzaman and British shingle Steel Mill Pictures. Camera's Sim van Veen and Laurens Geels will produce with Ken Marshall, Denise O’Dell and Mark Albela as executive producers.

uConnect will begin pre-sales on the title at the Cannes Film Festival next month. The deal was negotiated by Sim van Veen and uConnect's Peter Rogers.